Study Buddies
by clonewriter38
Summary: College AU. When Cosima goes to the library only to find out that she needs to use the exact same books to complete her assignment as a certain French blonde does, the two decide to solve their problem by working together and end up bonding in the process.


_A/N: This is my first contribution to the Orphan Black fandom. Just a little something I wrote to practise with these characters while I work on bigger things._

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><p>Cosima runs her fingers along the worn spines of the heavy books on the highest shelf, glancing down to the crumpled note in her other hand. She scans the reference numbers scrawled down in her own messy handwriting just to check that she is, in fact, in the correct section of the library. But yes, the numbers on the piece of paper match the numbers on the spine of each book in front of her, the only difference being the absence of all except one of the titles Cosima jotted down.<p>

"Fuck," curses Cosima, as she reaches up and removes the only relevant book from the shelf, knowing that this alone won't be enough to complete her assignment.

"Are you okay?"

Cosima's head snaps up at the unfamiliar voice and finds a woman standing just a few metres away, having just heard Cosima's frustrated outburst. She's tall and slender, with blonde curls that frame her face and wide brown eyes that look on in concern. Her voice is decorated with a European lilt, though Cosima finds it impossible to discern its exact geographical origin from only three short words.

Cosima waves an apologetic hand at the woman, launching into an explanation for her frustration at top speed.

"Yeah, I … it's just that I have to hand in a dissertation proposal by tomorrow and I've accidentally left it to the last minute but some idiot has taken all the books I need. And I know that the asshole is still around here somewhere because I've triple-checked the online catalogue and none of the books have been officially checked out of the library."

The blonde woman says absolutely nothing, but her prior look of concern has been replaced by one of mild amusement, her pale cheeks now tinged with a faint rosy blush.

"I think that…" the blonde hesitates momentarily, then continues, "I think that I might be the 'asshole' that has your books. And the book that I am looking for is the one you are holding."

Cosima's mouth falls open slightly. She stares at this woman and knows that if she wasn't feeling so numb from the surprise of accidentally mouthing someone off to their own face, she would be feeling a little bit of shame. Instead, the irritation that she'd been feeling towards the previously mysterious library dweller using the same books as Cosima dissipates immediately, because seriously, how can Cosima be annoyed at somebody for needing the same library resources as her when that someone has a face this angelic?

"I'm sorry," Cosima apologises, internally cursing the way that her heart hammers against her chest because of the beautiful European in front of her. "I don't actually think you're an asshole. Just stress, you know? I was annoyed because you had my books, I swear I'm not normally such a bitch."

"Maybe I can redeem myself by offering to share the books?" the woman suggests. "There's a space at the table I'm working at if you want to join me. It's not like I can read all the books at the same time."

Cosima balances up the options. Her bag and laptop are waiting at a spacious table just around the corner from the microbiology section of shelving, empty but for her own belongings. Cosima knows that she studies best alone, with no distractions and plenty of space to spread out her multitude of notes and books, and she doesn't think that becoming this woman's unexpected study partner will be at all conducive to getting her work done efficiently. _Especially not with such a pretty face to distract me_, thinks Cosima. Yet if Cosima chooses to remain where she's already set up camp for the day, she realises that there won't be any work to get distracted from, not with the lack of books to help her…

"Sure," beams Cosima. "Let me just get my stuff. I'm Cosima, by the way."

"Delphine. Enchanté."

_She's French_, the really gay part of Cosima's brain screams, as she tries not to drool too much at the pretty face and lyrical accent combination. Nor at the way that Delphine's black pants hug a slender, yet curved pair of hips that sway hypnotically as she leads the way between the two bookshelves. Cosima has to remind herself that it's hardly appropriate to stare at a new acquaintance's retreating ass in any situation, let alone when she's just made the generous offer that Delphine has.

It turns out that Delphine is stationed only two table away from where Cosima had originally been planning to study and before Cosima knows it, she's sitting opposite the blonde, the books stacked up on the table between them and Cosima's laptop and notes spread out haphazardly before her.

They settle into a comfortable silence, marred only by the occasionally murmured request for the other to pass a book across the table. Surprisingly, Cosima finds that Delphine's presence almost encourages her to be more productive, being able to see the pages and pages of notes that the blonde is scribbling and annotating, and not wanting to seem like she is slacking in comparison.

By the time the two of them have been working studiously for almost an hour and a half, Cosima has several pages of notes spread out before her, annotated with arrows, quotes from books and her own comments. She's pretty sure that it will be a struggle to organise such confusion into a proposal coherent enough for her advisor to be able to understand, but she's confident that she's making as much progress as is possible when the work has been left to such last minute.

Despite her surprising levels of productivity, Cosima does get distracted occasionally though, mostly by the beautiful blonde sitting opposite her. Delphine has a habit of reading with her bottom lip caught between her teeth as she scans the pages in front of her with her index finger, and image which is not at all helpful to Cosima's efficiency. Occasionally Delphine will raise her hand a comb her fingers through the curly blonde tendrils that fly wild around her face, sweeping the hair across so that the parting effortlessly falls to the other side. Cosima finds herself mesmerised on more than one occasion, having to strongly resist slapping herself to bring herself out of her daydreams.

Delphine catches her staring twice, only the second time actually making a comment about it.

"What?"

"My brain is fried from all this reading," Cosima makes an excuse after being caught watching the blonde.

Delphine perks up at this and sets her pen down on the table in front of her, reaching into the pocket of the jacket draped over her chair and pulling out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter.

"I was actually thinking of going for a cigarette break myself, if you want to join me?"

"Yeah," nods Cosima, getting to her feet and attempting to shuffle the mess of notes on the table into something vaguely resembling organisation, despite the fact that she'll be returning here to work in just a few minutes anyway.

The entrance to the library is pretty busy when they arrive downstairs, unsurprisingly for the middle of a Thursday afternoon during a time that Cosima knows is full of deadlines and mock exams. There's a lengthy queue for the café by the main doors and a healthy number of students hang out on the benches just outside the entrance. With a cigarette between her lips, a lighter in one hand and her other hand cupped around the end of the cigarette, Delphine lights it and lets out a puff of smoke, offering the lighter to Cosima.

"Do you…?"

"No, it's fine. I don't smoke. Not cigarettes anyway. Just pot."

Shrugging, Delphine tucks the lighter back into her pocket and turns to Cosima with a mildly amused look of inquisition filling her soft features.

"So you left your work until the last minute?"

"Uh, yeah," winces Cosima. "I thought the deadline was further away than it actually is and possibly went out a few too many times with friends these past couple of weeks when I should have been working. The deadline crept up on me a little bit. I kind of lack time management skills."

"I could tell that from the way you are always late to Dr Moreton's lectures on Wednesday mornings," teases Delphine.

Cosima's eyes widen in surprise and she wracks her brain, desperately searching for a memory of having seen Delphine before, in that crowded Wednesday morning lecture hall.

"You take Moreton's class too? Damn, I don't remember ever seeing you in there before."

Delphine simply shrugs, as if she hadn't been expecting Cosima to recognise her anyway.

"There are a hundred of us in that lecture and I blend in with the others," she tells Cosima, taking a long drag from her cigarette and then expelling the smoke out into the chilly Minnesotan air. "You, on the other hand, are known by everyone in that class as the one who is always late."

"Wow, what a reputation to have," jokes Cosima, shooting a cheeky grin in Delphine's direction. "Well I'm not great at being on time even without an excuse, but you see, Tuesday night is LGBT night at a couple of the bars in town and my friends and I make a habit of going out. It's hard to be on time for a nine o'clock lecture the morning after!"

If Delphine is surprised at Cosima hinting at her not-entirely-straight-ness, she doesn't show it. In fact, she doesn't let it throw her at all, instead immediately saying, "Ah, well I'll remember to telepathically send you my sympathy for your inevitable hangover next time you are late!"

Reaching the end of her cigarette, Delphine drops the stub onto the floor and puts it out with the heel of her shoe. Gesturing back to the library, she says, "Shall we?"

"Sure," Cosima nods eagerly, "It's freezing out here!"

The two of them scan their university ID cards on the barriers back into the library and make their way through the turnstiles. Heading towards the library's main staircase, Delphine looks across once more at Cosima.

"So how is your proposal going?"

Cosima shrugs her shoulders in a noncommittal kind of way before responding, "It's hard to tell. I thought I knew exactly what I wanted to do my diss on, but now that I've done a bit more reading, I think I might want to change my focus entirely and do something else. I'm not sure if I have time to change my mind this late though, because I'll have to delete the few hundred words I've already typed up and go through all my notes."

"What are you thinking of doing it on?" asks Delphine, not out of politeness, but with a genuinely intrigued look on her face.

"I was thinking of something to do with clone cells and how they can be used to steer evolution and the subsequent impact that has on natural selection, but I'm not so sure anymore."

In a complete contrast to Cosima's own uncertainty, Delphine's eyes widen at Cosima's words and she responds, "Oh, but that is a fascinating area. The possibility of one day being able to use clone cells to cure life-threatening diseases is right at the forefront of much medical microbiology research and as an immunology student, I find it all very interesting."

"Yes, but there's also the whole ethical side of the arguments," Cosima points out. "Like if we use clone cells for what is essentially wiping out imperfections, how long does it take for us to have created a 'perfect human'."

Cosima emphasises the last two words by using her fingers to make quotation marks in the air and Delphine nods frantically in agreement.

"And then to bring it all back to your original question," Delphine continues where Cosima left off, "how long before natural selection is obsolete. And then, if the human race consists entirely of this 'perfect human'," Delphine mimics Cosima's hand gestures, "what are the risks of the entire human race being wiped out in one go? Because there is no doubt that variation is what stops races from going extinct."

Cosima doesn't reply to this, but instead can't help the grin that spreads across her face, cheek to cheek, at Delphine's perfect understanding of her dissertation ideas. After a few seconds of silence, Delphine notices Cosima's lack of response and stops in her steps, turning to check that everything is okay, only to be met by Cosima's smile.

"What?" asks Delphine. "Why are you grinning at me?"

"Just…" begins Cosima, sighing contentedly and then continuing, "I love talking about science with other people that also love science."

Cosima must have said the right thing because Delphine's face lights up at once, brown eyes bursting with excitement and a smile that bares two rows of perfect teeth spreading across her face.

"Yes," she replies, almost breathlessly. "I like that too, Cosima."

The way that Cosima's name drips off Delphine's tongue like melted chocolate, cushioned in her velvety accent, almost makes Cosima swoon on the spot. She barely manages to keep herself together, grateful that they've finally arrived back at their table because the chair means that Cosima doesn't have to worry about her legs giving way under this gorgeous woman's soft gaze.

Unaware of what she's doing to Cosima, Delphine gets to work once more immediately, picking up her pen and scribbling something down on the notepad in front of her as if they'd never left at all. Cosima, meanwhile, takes a few minutes to get herself set up and to collect herself, distancing herself from all thoughts of Delphine's pretty eyes and musical accent.

Cosima is much less productive after their brief break outside. Not because she's distracted by the view across the table, but because her brain is having difficulty focusing on the task at hand and remembering that she has less than twenty four hours to complete the proposal. It's not the French woman that is taking up most of her thoughts, not directly anyway, but rather the brief interaction that the pair shared on the subject of Cosima's dissertation. Now, with each critical analysis of the sources in front of her that Cosima jots down, she finds her mind wandering to Delphine and what she would be writing down in this situation. Cosima knows that it's too late to pick the blonde's brain about the subject, perhaps if the assignment was due _next_ week Cosima would invite Delphine out for coffee over the weekend and continue their earlier discussion. But instead, Cosima ends up wasting time trying to put herself into the mind of a stranger she's known for just a few hours of silent study at the same table, trying to see the sources through the eyes of the French woman opposite her.

The attempt is futile, and it is with part relief and part disappointment, that Cosima watches Delphine begin to gather her belongings and pack it into her bag just as the sun starts to set out of the tall window beyond.

"I have to go now," Delphine whispers across to Cosima, slipping her arms into the sleeves of her coat and swinging her purse over her shoulder. "It was nice to meet you Cosima. Perhaps we will see each other on Wednesday in Dr Moreton's lecture. I will save you a seat if you like, if you can manage not to be late."

It is with the teasing glint in Delphine's eyes and the promise of future interactions with the French woman, that Cosima decides she is never going to be late for another Wednesday morning lecture again.


End file.
